Jeep Renegade

Small, cheap, and cheerful, the Renegade is just as much fun as its toylike dimensions might lead you to believe. Its styling is full of nifty Jeep touches, including two removable “My Sky” roof panels and clever Easter Egg design details sprinkled throughout. Power comes from a 160-hp, 1.4-liter turbo four with a six-speed manual or a 180-hp, 2.4-liter four with a nine-speed automatic. Each is available with front- or four-wheel drive, and the Trailhawk model promises real off-road capability. Instrumented Test – 2015 Jeep Renegade Limited 4x4

2015 Jeep Renegade Limited 4x4

If there were a Jeep emoji, it would look like this.

This little Jeep Toontown trucklet is a veritable bouillon cube of cuteness.

From the Jeep Renegade’s big, innocent peepers (bearing a little Jeep grille and headlights logo) to its saccharine-sweet taillights molded with an “X” in the middle to look like the side of a jerrycan, the Renegade is 166.6 inches of ­concentrated adorableness. Naturally, the taillights also have little Jeep grille-and-headlights logos embedded within them. Open the rear doors and you’ll see NO STEP! molded into the flared, black-plastic rocker panel. For chrissakes, the speaker grilles in all four of its doors have little seven-slot Jeep grilles and headlights molded into them. That’s right, the Renegade’s grilles have grilles.

We eventually stopped trying to find all of these whimsical Easter eggs that have turned this latest Jeep into a ve­hicu­lar version of a page from an old Highlights for Children magazine. Just as our photographer put away his gear we would find another little cartoonish detail. We gave up at 3 a.m.

By then, only the chatty security guard (on an almost-as-adorable three-wheeled scooter) remained at the mall. Well, he and Scott, the long-suffering manager of the Rainforest Cafe who had offered up the vine-covered, gift-shop–equipped, themed eatery as our photo location. What better place to drive this cartoon Jeep from Melfi, Italy, than in an animatronic version of the rain forest in an outlet mall in Auburn Hills, Michigan? Exactly.

Crabby people will think that the overwhelming number of Easter eggs hidden in the Renegade is silly. Most buyers won't.

But if it seems we’re being too dismissive of the Renegade because of its silliness, we don’t really mean to be. We are not unmoved by silliness and whimsy. We understand what this playful little ute replaces. We remember the sadness box that was the Jeep Patriot. We remember also the Compass, which looked very much like the wad of stuff longtime smokers cough up during their morning showers. Those two things are still on sale, if you can believe it. And though Jeep has never officially said that the Renegade will replace them, it will. So we’re happy to be happy.

And surely Jeep is overjoyed to have something that actually looks kind of cool in the low end of the SUV/crossover market—a market that will soon be thick with entries from Chevy, Fiat, Honda, Kia, Mazda, and, possibly, all other carmakers. And hey, this li’l Jeep isn’t saddled with the dreadful CVT automatic that its forebears were. So buck up, kids! Have another Jurassic Chicken Tidbit™ (dinosaur-shaped chicken strip) and marvel at the motorized crocodile jawing away in his tap-water bath.

This Jeeplet has a version of the nine-speed automatic that sees duty in the Chrysler 200 and Jeep Cherokee. Well, you can also get a six-speed manual transmission, but not in high-end Limited versions such as our test Renegade. The lower-level Sport and Latitude models come standard with the stick. They also are fitted with the 160-hp turbo 1.4-liter inline-four from the Fiat 500 Abarth. Our test car came with the “Tigershark” 180-hp 2.4-liter inline-four (also found in the Renegade Trailhawk), which is as much like a tiger shark as Jurassic Chicken Tidbits™ are like dinosaurs.

Unlike actual tiger sharks, the Jeep’s 2.4-liter engine loves to give foot massages. Every time you press your right foot deeply into the accelerator the engine sends waves of soothing vibrations through the pedal. At idle, the 2.4-liter gives your hands the vibro-treatment through the steering wheel. Thoughtful. Its soundtrack, however, is somewhat less soothing than the whale songs performed by Enya that invariably accompany spa massages. This is not what you would call a smooth engine. As in its earlier application in the Cherokee, the nine-speed is a decent piece of work with an absolute aversion to ninth gear. It is clearly tuned for fuel efficiency, as it swaps cogs madly in an attempt to get to the highest possible gear as soon as possible. This allows the Tigershark to take a nap—one from which it’s reluctant to wake. The big four feels as if it’s lugging until it drops a gear or two. On the upside, with 175 pound-feet of torque peaking at 3900 rpm, the engine has decent grunt. And it needs it because, at 3454 pounds, our loaded four-wheel-drive Renegade is not light. It is heavier by 84 pounds than the last four-wheel-drive Buick Encore we tested, and it’s hundreds of pounds heavier than a Kia Soul or four-wheel-drive Nissan Juke. Consequently, the Renegade is not quick. It needs 8.8 seconds to arrive at 60 mph and gets through the quarter-mile in 16.8 seconds at 81 mph. That’s about a half-second slower than a Soul and about 1.5 seconds slower than a Juke. It is, however, quicker than a four-wheel-drive Encore, which at 10.0 seconds to 60 mph is officially slow.

But, look at the thing. Did you expect it to be quick? No, you didn’t. For bopping around town and for trips to the mall, who cares? The turbocharged Renegade with the manual transmission is only a tenth of a second quicker to 60 mph. So don’t expect to surprise anyone at your local stoplight drag strip.

Surprised we were by the little box’s neutral handling characteristics on the skidpad. With a center of gravity 27.0 inches off the ground (same as a minivan), the Renegade has some body roll. And, riding on 225/55R-18 Goodyear Eagle Sport All Season tires, it can only manage a measly 0.78 g of grip (about the same as a minivan). Yet the chassis feels confident, even playful. The relatively quick steering is a big part of the equation here. Our only dynamic complaint is the positively retro-style brake dive. Hit the brakes for the first time and watch the nose sniff for pavement, yet the Renegade delivers decent braking perform­ance with a 70-to-zero-mph stop of 166 feet (better than your average minivan).

There's no way to tell precisely where the redline is, but you won't really want to take this engine there anyway.

The thing’s relative slowness and slight crudeness remind us that it’s based on an economy model. Its “small-wide 4x4 architecture” descends from the decidedly unlovely Fiat 500L. That the Renegade is so competent and enjoyable to drive, well, that’s a minor miracle. It’s harder to keep that in mind, though, when the test car lists at $33,180. Gulp. But, look, we wanted to check out all the goodies, so we had Jeep load it up. For reference, a Sport model with front-wheel drive starts at just under $19,000. But we had Chrysler’s excellent navigation, Sirius satellite radio, a (mediocre) nine-speaker stereo system, 18-inch wheels, heated front seats, heated steering wheel, passive entry, remote start, blind-spot monitoring, rear-parking assist, lane-departure warning, forward-collision warning, and a system that warns you when you’re about to say something regrettable to your spouse. Our test car also came with the My Sky removable sunroof system. The front panel can power over the rear panel should you not want to remove both altogether. Our Renegade was of the four-wheel-drive variety (a $2000 option on any trim level), with a fairly simple front-drive system that automatically engages the rear axle on demand. If you think of it as a mechanical traction-control device, you’re not far from the truth. Our test unit also had the four-mode Selec-Terrain system that tailors throttle response, transmission settings, front/rear torque split, and traction- and stability-control thresholds to the climatic conditions (auto, snow, sand, and mud).

All the options make for a convenient and mostly comfortable experience. The wind and road noise will remind you that you are in an economy-based vehicle, even if it’s a remarkably well-equipped one. But Jeep has tried to attenuate that noise with its “body-cavity silencing foam,” which sounds like just the thing we’ve needed for some time. The range of adjustability of the seat and steering wheel means that it’s easy for the driver to get comfortable. The control layout is straightforward—one of the few silly things inside is a ­redline (or red zone) on the tachometer that looks like a glancing paintball strike. Otherwise, this is a logically arrayed interior, rendered in decent-looking materials, and it works well. Visibility is no problem, other than excessively wide pillars. The rear quarters are a ­little short on legroom, but this vehicle rides on a 101.2-inch wheelbase. That’s about four inches shorter than a Civic sedan’s. Still, we could fit a six-foot-three guy behind another six-foot-three guy. And thanks to the cubic design, there’s plenty of rear headroom.

With 51 cubic feet of cargo capacity with the rear seats folded, the Renegade provides almost exactly the same hauling capability as an old Audi A4 Avant, just with a higher load floor. God, we miss the Audi A4 Avant.

Anyway, the cheery Renegade is a summertime pop song. It’s sprinkles on top of a soft-serve ice-cream cone. It’s a happy dog. And what kind of monster can be angry at a happy dog?

TEST NOTES:Don't look to this up-level engine for a performance upgrade. A Renegade with the 1.4-liter turbo engine and manual transmission is a tenth of a second quicker to 60 mph but four tenths slower in the 5-to-60 measure.

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